Quest for Space Enchantment Day 7
Description Welcome to The VFK Space Enchantment Epic Quest Day 7 - Don't Fall Asleep! Over the years, the discoveries and development of technology that would make going to space and ultimately surviving in space a reality, has been extensive. Each discovery has taken great minds, dedication, and hard work to take each crucial step in the advancement toward the stars. From developing nuclear energy to building rocket engines, however, each of these major discoveries has had an intriguing common element. For the seventh day of our epic quest for Space Enchantment, we will look at what went into our trek into space. Your reward for completing this quest will be 1,000 credits, and ???! Prizes Questions 1. During World War II, the United States conducted a project, code named The Manhattan Project, whose mission was to develop an atomic bomb. This project from 1942 to 1946, formally called the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) was under the administration of General Leslie R. Groves and was in the control of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The lead scientific researcher on the project was American Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Since the 1930's, the US had feared that Germany was also researching nuclear weapons. What began as a small research program in 1939, soon employed over 130,000 people and had multiple top secret research and production sites. Where was the main "think tank" which was also responsible for assembling the bombs? * Manhattan, New York * Oak Ridge, Tennessee * Berkley, California * Los Alamos, New Mexico 2. Los Alamos National Laboratory was constructed on the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School, which was a private boys school. Oppenheimer knew about the remote site as he had been horse back riding near the school which was near his ranch in New Mexico. At his suggestion, the government bought the site and it became one of the four main secret facilities for the project, and the one which put together the materials and components produced for the project at the other sites. Go to the crossroads outside the garden gate and say "It is top secret!" 3. Another major step in technology was testing the bomb that had been developed for the Manhattan Project. Working out the logistics of the test was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a physics professor at Harvard. He worked under the guidance of George Kistiakowsky, a Russian born and educated Chemist and a fellow Harvard professor. Kistiakowsky served as head of the National Defense Research Committee's Explosives Division after the start of World War II. The scientists knew that the test must stay top secret and that it must be in a location where a bomb of uncertain power could be detonated and remain secret. What site did they choose for detonating the first nuclear bomb? * North of Badwater, Death Valley, California * Jornada del Muerto near Socorro, New Mexico * Sonoran Desert south of Tucson, Arizona * Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah 4. The Trinity site is located in a remote area of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, since renamed White Sands Missile Range. It was at the north part of the range and located between the sleepy desert towns of Carrizozo and Socorro, New Mexico. The military began to set up the site in 1944 and continued until the test on July 16, 1945. They predicted that the explosion could be anything from a complete failure, to destruction of the entire state of New Mexico, to igniting the atmosphere of the whole planet. In the end, the explosion left a crater of radioactive glass ten feet deep and 1100 feet wide. Go "down under" to the first Outback room and say "It was a flash of fire!" 5. At the age of 16, on October 19th, Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry had an inspiration which was to guide the rest of his life. After reading H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," he imagined "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars." For the rest of his life, he privately commemorated October 19th as the day of his greatest inspiration. Goddard dedicated his life to studying rockets. He developed mathematical theories of rocket flight and experimented with solid-fuel rockets. He anticipated man being able to explore the Earth's atmosphere and go beyond into space. Goddard's work is considered to be the definitive pioneering work in the science of rockets. Where did Goddard do most of his experiments with rockets? * Cape Canaveral, Florida * Auburn, Massachusetts * Roswell, New Mexico * Houston, Texas 6. During his years in New Mexico, Goddard experimented with a number of rocket designs and propellants. He experimented with gyroscopic guidance systems and had many failures as well as successes. His work on massive rockets designed to reach very high altitudes was ground breaking. He tried repeatedly to bring his work to the attention of the US Army, but was turned down due to the military failing to see the strategic potential of rockets. Go to Balta Street in Victorian Age and say "He blazed the trail for modern rockets." 7. Wernher von Braun, the father of the US Space program had already been working on the V-2 rockets for Germany in World War II. Von Braun and some of his rocket team were brought to the US and became part of a top secret rocket project called Operation Paperclip. Von Braun became director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and according to NASA, was considered to be "the greatest rocket scientist in history.". His work was instrumental in developing the Saturn V rocket which made landing the first men on the Moon possible. Where did Wernher von Braun help refurbish, and launch V-2 rockets that had been brought from Germany? * Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland * New Castle Army Air Field, Wilmington, Deleware * Fort Strong, Boston, Massachusetts * White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico 8. Von Braun's vision, talent and determination to develop rockets resulted in the creation of the US Space Program. His visions of the future and of humans going into space and inhabiting orbiting space stations were published and became influential in popularizing his ideas. His primary goal with developing the space station was for it to act as an assembly place for manned expeditions to the Moon. Go to the first English countryside, just off of Stonehenge, and say "Let's go launch a rocket!" 9. After over sixty years of publicity, many books and witness interviews, the mystery of the biggest alleged UFO cover up by the government is still a mystery. From where was the military press release issued stating that a crashed "flying disk" had been recovered from a ranch nearby? * Fort Worth Army Air Field, Fort Worth, Texas * Roswell Army Air Field, Roswell, New Mexico * Muroc Army Air Field, California * Fort Bliss, El Paco, Texas 10. Just the mention of "Roswell" conjures up images of small aliens with large shining eyes coming to earth and crashing into the southwestern desert in 1947. The firsthand eye-witness account of Jesse Marcel, released years later in 1978, ignited interest in the case and elevated the Roswell "Incident," as it was to become known, from a buried forgotten event to one of the most famous UFO incidents ever. UFO researchers interviewed several hundred people who in some way claimed a connection with the 1947 event. They were looking for any information that could shed some light on the truth of what really happened in Roswell. The conclusion by these researchers was that an alien space craft had crashed in the Roswell area, and that aliens were recovered, followed by a comprehensive government cover-up to hide the truth forever. With the rich and innovative history of rockets, space development and stories of alien visitations to the Land of Enchantment, New Mexicans have a common thought. Go to the Fireworks lobby and say "Don't fall asleep." Answers 1. Los Alamos, New Mexico 2. Go to the Crossroads outside the garden gate and say "It is top secret!" 3. Jornada del Muerto near Socorro, New Mexico 4. Go "down under" to the Australian Outback I and say "It was a flash of fire!" 5. Roswell, New Mexico 6. Go to Corner of Balta St. in Victorian Age and say "He blazed the trail for modern rockets." 7. White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico 8. Go to English Countryside - I, just off of Stonehenge, and say "Let's go launch a rocket!" 9. Roswell Army Air Field, Roswell, New Mexico 10. Go to the 4th of July Fireworks Lobby and say "Don't fall asleep." Category:Quests Category:Epic Quests